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Mystery of the Fourth Wall

by Mary Zimmerman

Review in theSan Francisco Chronicle (December 5, 1989)
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"Fourth Wall' Steps Far Beyond Reality

Curtain Calls
Bernard Weiner, San Francisco Chronicle
December 5, 1989

 

Mary Zimmerman's "The Mystery of the Fourth Wall" - presented by West Coast Playwrights at Exitheater, 366 Eddy Street, with her fellow Chicago performance-artists - remains somewhat mysterious after its 90 minutes expire. And yet, it's an intriguing piece of theater.

The script, which Zimmerman also directs, has something to do with the Pygmalion myth, followed out over the centuries. In contemporary times, the sculptor who would breathe life into his creation has become a phony detective (Phillip R. Smith) trying to locate his missing model. The woman (Laura Eason) is now an inmate, along with two companions (Tracy Walsh, Emilie Beck) at a local sanitarium. The mystery is slowly unraveled by a boring accountant (Tim Ereneta) who is mistaken for a detective and decides to impersonate one when he falls in love with one of the women.

I can't follow Zimmerman's script all that well - it appears to suggest that women must realize that the sculptors who turn them to stone are the sculptors inside themselves - but her staging is often exciting.

The script constantly takes realism into another, weirder realm - what the women dream, for example, often comes true when they're awake - and Zimmerman's staging, in a modified Wooster Group-style, grabs us and holds our interest.

The use of dance elements is often well handled - there's a beautiful moment when Aphasia (the elegant Tracy Walsh) sits in a chair and a man (Mark Brodie) then grabs the chair and whirls her off-stage.

Still, "The Mystery of the Fourth Wall" is a welcome addition of new blood to the Bay Area theater/performance art scene. It's at Exitheater through December 10, 1989.

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